<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Damned if I don't by DaSly fics (i_write_hurt_not_comfort)</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23685193">Damned if I don't</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_write_hurt_not_comfort/pseuds/DaSly%20fics'>DaSly fics (i_write_hurt_not_comfort)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Pandora Hearts</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, College AU, Drug Dealing, Flirting, M/M, Mentions of Prostitution, PH week 2020 day 4, Smoking, but oh well, from twitter, it's not really a college AU because they're at a nightclub, ph week 2020</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 16:42:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,465</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23685193</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_write_hurt_not_comfort/pseuds/DaSly%20fics</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Day 4 (College AU) of PH week from Twitter. </p>
<p>In which Elliot gets dragged to nightclub for his 18th birthday, and makes a shocking discovery.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Leo Baskerville/Elliot Nightray</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Damned if I don't</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>so this is day 4 of the ph week 2020, from twitter. prompt is college AU but uh this idea struck me before another better one did, even though it's not reallllllly college AU. they're college (UK college, at least) age, so there that's it. this one is being posted alone because it's not related to the others. <br/>i'm sorry okay i just wanted to give Elliot the 18th birthday i wanted but ffffffucking lockdown stole it. </p>
<p>content warnings: mentions of drug-dealing, smoking, very brief internalized homophobia. </p>
<p>enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Elliot has always hated parties, so why he ever agreed to let Oz and Lottie take him to a nightclub for his eighteenth birthday is still a mystery to him.</p>
<p>It’s noisy, and packed, and sweaty, and the music is unbearable. There are drunk people tripping over all around him, and dealers in every corner of the space. And as much as Elliot hates to admit it, he’s had very little exposure to drugs in his life, and he honestly wasn’t sure he’d be prepared to say no if someone offered him something. Part of him, for a brief second, thinks that perhaps this would all be more bearable if he <em>was </em>on something.</p>
<p>To make matters worse, Elliot is fairly certain he’s lost Oz and Lottie already. It was all fine, and they’d been on their way to the bar to get drinks, and then all of a sudden, he turned around, and they were gone. Thus, right now, as he’s buying his first drink of the night with the driver’s license which has been checked three times so far, Elliot once again wonders why he agreed to this.</p>
<p>Oh, and <em>another</em> problem is that Oz and Lottie had the <em>brilliant </em>idea of taking him to a gay club. It’s great and all, Elliot thinks, that they’re supportive of his sexuality. But, considering he’s only recently come out to <em>himself</em>, standing in a room full of guys making out with guys and girls making out with girls and everything in between seems a step <em>too </em>far.</p>
<p>After taking a deep breath, Elliot finally decides to go outside to the small area on the rooftop, noting that the gin and tonic clutched tightly in his right hand is almost finished, and he’s finally starting to feel slightly drunk.</p>
<p>Thankfully, as he takes a seat on one of the empty tables in the corner of the space, he sees it’s relatively quiet – spare a few groups smoking. Elliot himself doesn’t smoke, but he knows Lottie does, so hopefully, if he waits there for long enough, she’ll show up.</p>
<p>A few seconds later, and Elliot begins to think he might not be that lucky.</p>
<p>From the opposite side of the rooftop, he meets someone’s eye, and that eye contact along sends a bolt of electricity through him.</p>
<p>Said person – who he assumes is a guy (although he can’t be 100% sure) – seems no older than himself. He’s slightly shorter, but his face is sharp, a devious smirk donning his lips. Despite that, there’s something about his aura which seems… temperamental. And his hair – that’s a <em>mess</em>, but Elliot has to admit: there’s something about the way the pitch-black locks drape over his glasses which is… almost arousing?</p>
<p>By the time Elliot forces himself to stop staring, said person is already standing in front of him.</p>
<p>“Waiting for someone?” he asks, but the smirk previously painted onto his faces disappears.</p>
<p>“Uh, no,” Elliot stammers, realising his face is now red, as he reluctantly accepts that the guy standing before him is actually pretty damn attractive; albeit in a weird, sketchy way. (Oh, and his pupils are <em>very </em>dilated, making it clear that he’s pretty damn high.) “Well, um, yeah, sort of, I guess. Not- well, no-“</p>
<p>“Okay, I get it.” The other throws his hands up, an amused snort following. “Either way, I’m joining you. Heh, you look lonely.”</p>
<p>Elliot wants to say thank you, but he also sort of wants to slap this guy and say <em>why the fuck are you sitting here? </em>But instead of speaking, he simply watches, as the other slides onto the stall opposite him, pulls out a pack of cigarettes, and then slides out one of the individual sticks. As he sticks the cigarette between his lips, and cups a hand over the flame of his lighter to light it, Elliot once again realises he’s staring.</p>
<p>This time, he’s unable to tear his eyes away, as a thin plume of smoke rises from the other’s lips, and Elliot once again gets slapped by the realisation that he is, in fact, gay.</p>
<p>“I’m… Elliot,” he says, shaking off the sudden infatuation and checking his phone as a distraction.</p>
<p>“Oh? Doing introductions now, are we?” The noirette chuckles. Obviously. He snickers again, as he takes another drag from the cigarette, and then exhales away from Elliot, before saying, “Leo. Just Leo.”</p>
<p>“Right,” Elliot mutters, and then finds himself lost for words again.</p>
<p>Fortunately, Leo seems more than willing to make up for that. “So, what brings you here?”</p>
<p>“Tch, it’s my birthday,” Elliot replies.</p>
<p>For a moment, Leo doesn’t reply, and instead glances over his shoulder, seemingly searching for someone. Then, he turns back to Elliot, dragging on the cigarette, before the usual smirk returned to his face. “Oh? Happy birthday, then.” He exhales the smoke through pursed lips, then taps the ash off the cigarette, and mutters under his breath, “Seems weird to be spending your birthday in a gay club alone, though.”</p>
<p>“I lost my friends,” Elliot frowns, and then realises how sulky that sounded. So, he enters defensive mode. “And… so what?! <em>You </em>came here alone, too!”</p>
<p>“Hm, true,” Leo hums, and for a second, as his eyebrows knit together, Elliot wonders if he’s pissed him off. “But I’m working.”</p>
<p>“You’re <em>working</em>?” Elliot scoffs. “Tch, as <em>what</em>? I didn’t see you at the bar.”</p>
<p>For some reason, Leo finds that highly amusing. Once he’s done laughing, he turns around to face Elliot, and leans an elbow on the table. After taking a long drag from the cigarette, he pulls it away from his lips, then tilts his head upwards to exhale. A smug look morphs across his face, very slowly, and Elliot begins to regret saying anything.</p>
<p>“Why don’t you guess?” Leo says, the smug grin growing exponentially. “What do <em>you </em>think I work as, hm?”</p>
<p>The question – although he sort of expected it – still catches Elliot off guard. He narrows his eyes, scanning Leo over. His outfit is pretty scruffy: tight black jeans, and a dark grey shirt which is far too large, and untucked. Above that, he dons a black leather jacket, with four pockets on the outside. Something about him feels extremely shady, so Elliot mentally concludes that whatever <em>work </em>he’s doing, it’s not the legal kind.</p>
<p>In Elliot’s mind, there’s only two kinds of illicit work in a nightclub – prostitution, and drug dealing. And for some reason, Leo doesn’t seem tough enough to be a drug dealer.</p>
<p>From the way Leo’s tongue slides over his lower lip when Elliot meets his eyes again, followed by the subtle wink, Elliot comes to his answer.</p>
<p>“A prostitute?” he asks, sinking into the seat the moment the words leave his lips. “Sorry, I didn’t-“</p>
<p>“Ahh, Elliot thinks I’m sexy enough to be a prostitute~?” Leo says mockingly, his grin widening, as another cloud of smoke passes through his lips. “Would you hire my services?”</p>
<p>“What the hell?! No!” Elliot snaps, but then re-evaluates the second Leo’s smirk grows more seductive. “Well… it… would depend…”</p>
<p>“Interesting,” Leo chimes. He takes one last drag of the cigarette, before grinding it out in the ashtray in front of them. “But, no. I’m afraid not.”</p>
<p>“You’re kidding,” Elliot deadpans. For some reason, he’s <em>shocked </em>to hear that Leo <em>isn’t </em>a prostitute. “You’re a <em>dealer</em>?”</p>
<p>“Mhm,” Leo nods, placing a finger over his lips. “But don’t tell anyone, eh? And I might give you a discount.”</p>
<p>“I don’t want drugs,” Elliot refuses instantly.</p>
<p>Leo sighs. “Not yet.” The smirk returns. “How about later?”</p>
<p>As he takes the last sip of the gin and tonic (Elliot doesn’t remember drinking the rest of it, but he must’ve done), Elliot responds without thinking. “Whatever. <em>Maybe</em>. If… I see you again in there.”</p>
<p>“I’ll look forward to it,” Leo says, sliding off the stall. “I have to go back inside now. Give me your phone?”</p>
<p>Frantically, Elliot digs through his pocket until he finds his phone, then passes it to Leo. Leo is quick to take the phone, and quick to type his number in. When he passes it back, his fingers brush against Elliot’s, and that touch alone sends a shudder through Elliot. The thought of seeing Leo again later is exhilarating – although he’d never say it.</p>
<p>“Text me when you’re up to it,” Leo said, his tone turning darker, as he steps closer to Elliot, until their faces are barely three inches apart, and Leo’s hands begin running over Elliot’s thighs, “if you know what I mean.”</p>
<p>At that, Leo turns to leave, waving goodbye before disappearing back inside, leaving Elliot alone – red-faced, and annoyingly turned on.</p>
<p>Exactly six seconds later, the realisation that Leo had actually been <em>flirting </em>with him hits Elliot like a fucking train.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>thanks for reading this absolute crack. please leave your comments i'll literally drink them.</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>